


we'll write our names across the town

by timequakes



Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-19
Updated: 2013-12-19
Packaged: 2018-01-05 03:15:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1088954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/timequakes/pseuds/timequakes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>beginnings and endings and learning how to be 'good enough'. an au from 2009 to 2015, in snippets. strong t for like literally one sentence.</p>
            </blockquote>





	we'll write our names across the town

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this as a present for someone and figured why not post it? Abby and Sarah and LDV were, in fact, roommates during their Washington Freedom days, and Kelley's first senior national team callup was in 2009, and she DID start out as a striker, but I took my liberties with everything else. title taken from the lyrics of 'stay gold' by the big pink.

"She's good, that kid."

Hope doesn't answer right away. It's only barely been a year since she listened to the words out of Abby's mouth again anyway, and it always annoys her when someone other than the coaches makes comments on their teammates' ability. It just seems like a good way to cause hurt feelings, and nobody knows about hurt feelings from teammates like Hope does. This is a compliment, though, and she'd be lying if she wasn't curious who about. 

Abby's looking at O'Hara, who's across the field doing some kind of close-quarters ball-handling drill with herself, even after the rest of them have started to pack up. Like she's got something to prove.

"I just don't know if she's good _enough_ ," Abby adds, and there it is, the barb that Hope knew was coming, the 'but' to the compliment, and the reason she walks away without saying a word, with her bag in one hand and her cleats tied, hanging, around her shoulders.

-

"You looked really good out there today."

Kelley jumps at the sound of a voice and the ball rolls a few feet away. Her heart's still sort of jumping in her chest when she turns to Hope, and later she's going to wonder if her body just starts to associate that response with Hope's face. It's not too far-fetched. 

"Thank you," she grins, and Hope even smiles at her.

"If you keep it up I wouldn't be surprised to see you back in January."

When Hope turns to leave, walking back towards the bus, Kelley takes a second to stand and come to terms with what was said. She doesn't want to make them wait for her- or have to walk to the hotel- so she scrambles to get her things together, but while she's fitting into the bus seat next to Tobin she realizes it fully and breaks into a grin so wide it makes her cheeks hurt.

Hope Solo is the first person to believe in her.

-

"I hate being your roommate," Abby whines, "you never put any of your shit away."

Hope finishes flossing before she even acknowledges the fact that she's being complained to.

"If it's on my side of the room I don't see why it's such a damn problem."

"I can't believe you went right over there to her after I said that. What'd you do, tell her that I said I wasn't sure she was good enough?"

Hope leaves the little hotel bathroom and wriggles out of her shorts, bending down to her suitcase to dig her pajama pants off. Abby's quiet for a moment, and Hope knows without having to confirm it that the reason is because Abby's watching her. Probably even feeling guilty about it. That's her saving grace.

"I told her," Hope replies, turning around once her pajamas are on, "that she was."

-

Kelley is back in January, and this time she's not new, so she doesn't get to pick her roommate, but she ends up with Alex, which is kind of funny because she expected a veteran. Or at least she expected someone who wasn't a year younger than her and still playing her own position. Getting asked to come back as a defender had hurt a lot, but she doesn't dwell on it. She's here, still, and she knows how lucky she is. 

It's just kind of difficult to room with the person you lost out your position to.

She learns early on that either Alex isn't really aware of it or is determined not to acknowledge it. This makes things difficult for Kelley, who had kind of hoped that Alex was either going to be sort of smug about it or was going to apologize or something. Neither of them even mentions it until the second day, when Kelley peels off her socks to reveal a bruise forming on her shin from where she'd tackled into Abby (cleanly) earlier, and Alex gasps a little.

"I'll get used to it," Kelley says, and she knows that Alex knows what she's referring to.

"You'd never know. Anyone watching, I mean. You're great."

"Good enough to keep around, I guess." 

This time. Good enough to keep around this time. Kelley doesn't think about the youth World Cup roster. She doesn't think about her twelve goals a year, and she doesn't think about getting dumped back at Stanford so that Alex and Sydney could go play the game she'd been dreaming about since she was twelve. It's not important anymore. Alex waits for her to get up off the carpet, and then stands up and hugs her. They've been rivals for years, and Alex has finally won, and they _should_ be enemies, but there they are, hugging in the middle of a hotel room. 

Kelley starts to realize then that Alex isn't going to let them be anything but friends.

-

"Hi."

"Hey. Miss me already?"

Abby smiles into the phone, leaning her head back against the door of the bathroom. With the shower running she knows she's safe from HAO overhearing anything, so she's not afraid to really talk.

"I thought about you all the way here."

"Really? Did your phone die?"

"No, I mean it. Sometimes just a part of you."

On the other line Sarah laughs, and Abby still, even miles away, gets a shot up the spine knowing that laugh was caused by her. It's new, what they have, three months old, two months officially.

"Your neck," Abby replies, sincerely. And it would only be romantic to Sarah. It would only be Sarah who takes that, who sits with it for a moment, and understands it without Abby having to explain it. That it's a strange sentiment, but a beautiful one.

Heather kicks the door. Abby curses, quietly, and Sarah laughs again.

"Get off the phone and get your big sweaty ass into the shower!"

-

Abby gets HAO back later by nuggeting her backpack while she's showering. She doesn't ask how much was obvious, and she doesn't get any explanation, so she just forgets it.

-

Hope finds herself alone with Kelley again when Kelley sits in the back of the bus like she has no idea what the natural order of things is. She doesn't say anything about it, mostly because they're not middle schoolers and it doesn't really matter if the back of the bus is for the same three people every time. Plus Kelley's trying to be nice, and she's so cheerful, all dimples and freckles and barely controlled energy. 

"I bet you didn't expect to see me back as a defender," she jokes, and Hope just shrugs a little, disarmed by Kelley's bluntness.

"I'm just kidding. I'm glad to be here."

"You're picking it up really fast," Hope replies, and the smile and the eye contact that Kelley holds after that is funny in a way Hope didn't expect. Making a connection with anyone like this, off the field, has never been easy for her. She's had Carli, and she's had Abby, but most of the time things like this come with _work_. Kelley just fits right in.

-

On the way back from practice, Kelley takes the same seat, but this time instead of saying anything she just offers Hope an earbud and takes a nap.

-

"You're so funny with her. She's such a kid."

"What are you trying to say?"

"Nothing. It's not like I can talk. Sarah's four years younger than me."

"The difference here being that you're _dating_ Sarah."

The prolonged silence afterwards just ends in Hope taking a very punctuated sip of her drink. Abby has known her long enough to know, considering the fact that they're on a plane, that there's alcohol in that drink. And she also knows, from experience, that messing with Hope while she's drinking or while she's on a plane is an absolutely stupid idea. 

She's sort of known for stupid ideas, though.

"Whatever you say."

-

The first thing Abby does when she lands in DC is find somewhere to buy some flowers. The second thing she does is text Lisa to warn her that she's on her way, because it's the polite thing to do, when you have three roommates and you're sleeping with one of them, and because she usually forgets. That's why she gets to the apartment to find only Sarah waiting for her.

Sarah, who's holding flowers, who takes one look at Abby and _her_ flowers before cracking up. Abby takes the flowers out of Sarah's hands and puts both bouquets on the counter before she loops her arms around Sarah's waist and lifts her into a bear hug where Sarah's feet are dangling inches off the ground. 

-

It ends up that Abby is right, and when Kelley and Hope room together the first thing Kelley does is kiss her, and the first thing Hope does is kiss her back. 

Hope puts her bag down, turns around to make sure the door is closed, and gets jumped, essentially. Kelley’s holding on to her by the lapels of her jacket, tugging her down a little bit because of the height difference, and Hope kisses her back mostly by instinct. When Kelley drops down onto her heels again, all flushed and blushing, Hope raises her eyebrows.

“Sorry. I mean, I kind of had to. You’re, you know.”

And further.

“You _know_ ,” Kelley insists, but now she’s untangling her fingers from Hope’s jacket and avoiding eye contact. Hope catches Kelley’s hands before they leave her shoulders and leans down to kiss her again. Because why not? It’s not as if she’s kissing anyone else anytime soon, and Kelley is sweet on her in a way that nobody’s been sweet on her in a long time. 

It only lasts as long as the camp does, and Hope expects things to be awkward afterwards, but they're not. Kelley is the first person- man or woman- who she's kissed and not regretted it. In March, when Kelley gets her first cap, Hope congratulates her afterwards with a hug around the shoulders. Kelley fits under her arm just right, and hugs back, and it’s not strange at all to think of the amount of time they spent mouth-to-mouth.

\- 

When the Freedom changes names and moves to Florida in 2011, Abby and Sarah get their first apartment together. It's less of an apartment and more of an awkward little condo, but it's home, and now every once in a while they buy each other flowers again just to laugh about it, but mostly they try and fail to one-up each other, and when the league dissolves and all they're left with is the condo and each other, it's not as bad as it could be. 

“I feel like I did the wrong thing,” Abby says, out of the blue as they’re watching TV. Sarah mutes the news and slides across the couch to lean against Abby, who rests an arm around her shoulders and sighs.

“It’s over now,” Sarah says, and the fact that she doesn’t outright tell Abby she did the right thing is enough to hurt. 

“Yeah, and what good did it do? The team’s gone. The league’s on its way out.”

Sarah kisses her and doesn’t say another word. It’s a reminder without having to speak- they have each other, and when worst comes to worst, as it seems like it will, that it’s going to be enough.

-

Kelley plays every minute of the 2012 Olympics, and afterwards, in the haze of alcohol and the kind of humidity only a crowd of dancing women can create, she pulls Hope aside. And they haven't kissed since before Kelley's first cap, but what was between them then is still there, maybe magnified by the alcohol or maybe magnified by years now of knowing each other and trusting each other and the fact that Adrian, for reasons Hope wishes she didn't understand, is no longer in the picture.

"Thank you for believing in me first," Kelley says, and suddenly Hope is very, very glad that they're roommates.

Sex with Kelley is funny in the best way. They're drunk and it's awkward at first, like their bodies don't quite fit together, and there's a lot of laughing and body parts bumping, noses and knees and elbows, until they figure it out and nobody's laughing anymore. 

Kelley tries to take her medal off. Hope makes sure that she doesn’t. It’s certainly something to come up from between Kelley’s legs and see her like that, with the medal resting against her stomach and her face and chest flushed. In that moment, as drunk as she is, Hope swears that Kelley is everything she’s ever wanted personified. 

-

After the Olympics, Sarah takes Abby back to Portland, back home, and surprises her in the middle of a morning hike by getting on one knee and fishing a ring out of her pocket.

Abby takes the ring _she_ has been hiding out of her _own_ pocket and drags Sarah to her feet to kiss her.

"I figured," Sarah says, when they switch rings, "but I wanted to beat you to it."

Abby's ring is nice and simple, just a silver band and a promise. The one she bought for Sarah is a classic engagement ring, and the diamond's maybe a little big for her finger, but it works for them.

"I wanted to ask you."

Abby knows she sounds a little petulant, but she also knows that Sarah knows better than to think that she means it. With their hands linked, Sarah tugs her back towards the trail and leans up to kiss her on the cheek, their arms bumping.

"It was never going to be a yes or no question. And anyway, I wanted to ask _you_."

-

Hope and Kelley don't move in together until 2014, when Tobin and Kelley are traded across the country and Kelley goes from being a Thorn to living in Seattle by the grace of Laura Harvey's incredible ability to bargain and trade. Kelley doesn’t even start looking for an apartment. After two years of sleeping together on and off, when they can, and having whatever kind of relationship their distance allows for, everything changes at once. She just sort of shows up in Kirkland and never leaves.

It's kind of fitting, considering that's how she ended up as a starting defender on the national team. They don't come out or anything drastic, they just live it, as roommates, as friends, and their private lives don't come into question until long after Kelley is a permanent fixture in Hope's life.

-

Engagements and rings and vows of everlasting love aren't really for them, but Kelley knows without a shadow of a doubt that Hope isn't going anywhere, and she knows that she's in it for good, too. In preparation for the World Cup they start getting questions- not just Hope and Kelley, but everyone- and when some schmuck with a microphone asks Kelley when she's going to get her own apartment in Seattle, since she's theirs for another two years, she just looks right at him and asks him why she would bother.

The catch, of course, is that everyone knows she’s Hope’s roommate.

TMZ has an article up by the time Kelley’s back home, and Hope shows it to her, clearly amused. Only Hope would be amused with Kelley coming out like that- like the idiot with the microphone was way behind. And it _is_ funny, especially reading the comments, most of which say something along the lines of, “that sex must be spectacular”, to which Kelley’s only reaction is to kiss Hope’s ear and murmur, “they have no idea.”

-

"Are you nervous?"

"I think that would be a little ridiculous, don't you?"

Kelley shrugs, scooping Hope's t-shirt off of the floor and tossing it at her from across the room where she's packing and watching Hope avoid it.

"I don't think so. It's still the World Cup."

"And we've still been number one since 2012."

Hope's being snappy about it and not making eye contact, and the T-shirt Kelley threw has just ended up next to the bed, where Hope is aggressively scrolling through something on her iPad. Kelley watches for half a second before she crawls up the bed, pries the iPad from Hope's hands, and kisses her. It only takes a few seconds before Hope gives in and kisses back, slipping her hands just under Kelley's shirt to rest at her hipbones. They're thirty four and twenty seven now, and the disparity between where they are in their careers has never been more obvious. This is Kelley's second World Cup. It's Hope's last, and she knows it, and knows that Kelley knows it, even if they don't say it out loud. 

"I'm more nervous than you are," Kelley whispers against the corner of Hope's mouth, and Hope smooths Kelley's hair out of her forehead without saying a word, because she can tell that there's more coming.

"When I came into camp and I didn't think I was going to make it, and you told me that I could, you didn't have any idea how much you were doing for me."

"I just told you that to spite Abby," Hope admits, "not that it wasn't true or that I didn't believe it or anything, but the only reason I said it to your face was because I was being an asshole to Abby."

"Whatever," Kelley laughs, bracing herself on one hand, "you're ruining the moment here. I'm trying to tell you that I'm nervous because I want to win this one for you."

"Win it for you, not for me."

"I love you, too."

-

The final game's regular time against Australia ends in a tie, with two goals from Sam Kerr and two from Alex each, both assisted by Abby, both scored in the second half of the second half, until which point they had been trailing by two. It's the kind of comeback that only this team could pull off, and Abby feels it in her bones that if they go to PKs she's going to completely lose all her steam. They need a golden goal in the first period of extra time, or the whole team is going to crack just enough to let Sam through one more time. They all know it. Abby can see it in their faces.

In the two minute break between the end of regulation time and the beginning of the first overtime, Abby searches the stands for Sarah and Ben and finds them waving, and she keeps them burned into her head, her wife and child, until ten minutes in when she dribbles through three defenders, dodges past the keeper, and practically walks into the net. Like it’s easy.

Easy.

Easy is how she finds climbing the barricade after to take Ben down with her, his weight effortless on her shoulders. Easy is how it feels to let go of her career then, now that everything has come full circle. With Ben’s little hands tugging on her hair she’s reminded every step that she has another job now- a bigger one. And she’s ready.

-

THE END OF AN ERA

July 10th, 2015

The WNT’s legendary Abby Wambach and Hope Solo both announced their retirements today in a joint interview following the USA’s incredible comeback on the 5th, where Wambach’s goal in the 114th minute clinched the team’s first World Cup win since 1999. Both said that they knew the World Cup would be their grand finale- and what a finale it was, for each of them. Wambach holds the all time international scoring record for both genders, a title which has been hers since 2013, and Solo retires as, undisputably, the best goalkeeper in the world.

Wambach says she will return to Rochester, where she lives with her wife Sarah (m. 2013) and their son, and where she plans to open a family restaurant. Solo’s plans for the future include a possible coaching job at the University of Washington, which is near her home in Kirkland, where she lives with her former national teammate Kelley O’Hara, 2014’s NWSL defender of the year. When asked about the nature of their relationship, Solo only laughed.

Wambach’s number 20 was given to Morgan Brian, winner of the 2013 MAC Hermann trophy, who has been with the team since 2013. Twenty-five year old AD Franch will wear number 1 come fall, according to the USSoccer website.

On retiring together, Wambach said, “ [she and Solo] made a pact. We’ve been doing this thing together since the beginning. It would be way too weird for there to just be one of us left.” 

Said Solo, jokingly, “it wouldn’t have been that weird.”


End file.
